The Church’s mission as seen through the words of Saint Paul the Apostle: ‘We have the mind of Christ’

The fulfilment of knowledge through faith, grace and good works constitutes a significant aspect of patristic understanding. Therefore, in establishing an ecclesial perspective on the proclamation of the Gospel, it is essential to draw upon the theology of the Fathers. These bearers of God bore witness to the fundamental importance of faith and the grace of the Holy Spirit in the process of coming to know the light and the mysteries of God. Faith in the experience of knowing God, the Creator of the universe, does not negate reason, but rather illuminates it on a higher plane and fulfils it through the evidence of revelations that occur at the level of spiritual progress. Thus, living out faith, as ‘a confirmation of unseen spiritual realities’1 involves embracing faith as a vision that transcends all understanding and knowledge, as Saint Gregory Palamas says. It is precisely for this reason that faith leads to the gift of ‘the mind of Christ’, which does not entail ignorance or hostility towards the knowledge bestowed by reason. This knowledge is the result of communion with the Most Holy Trinity, which transcends all demonstration, being above discursive knowledge. Saint Maximus the Confessor, speaking of this knowledge-confession, said: ‘The knowledge of things has its own reasons, naturally united with them, for their demonstration. Through these, they naturally receive their definition. God, however, is believed to exist only on the basis of the reasons found in things. But He grants the devout a faith in His existence that is more well-founded than any proof. For faith is true knowledge, founded on principles that cannot be demonstrated, as that which is the foundation of works beyond the mind and reason’2 In this context, having the mind of Christ means having an ecclesial perspective on the ultimate identity between knowledge and communion, between truth and falsehood, between reality and fiction. This obviously entails liberation from the captivity of overrated, limiting rational concepts and from the shroud of selfishness and worldly passions. Thus, the spiritual mind of the Orthodox missionary leads to a unifying vision of the world founded on man’s communion with God – the Creator’s Reason or Logos – as lived out in the experience of the Liturgy. This form of knowledge transcends artificial polarities or oppositions in the relationship between reason and faith, between the scientific and the spiritual, between the physical and the metaphysical, and between the immanent and the transcendent. All these distinctions, whilst distinct, are nevertheless inseparable, which means that their union can be achieved only by those who possess the mind of Christ the Saviour. Thus, through communion of faith and living love with the Saviour Jesus Christ, the divisions or ruptures in the realms of knowledge caused by sin—manifested, among other things, in the opposition between reason and faith—are overcome. Moreover, the one who is called to speak to the world about the immortal gifts of the Spirit does so through the knowledge drawn from within the experience of his communion with God, the Creator and Saviour of the world. Naturally, before speaking to others, one must be healed of the limitations of the self-centred existence of sin and of death as a denial of life, as St Paul the Apostle states3 As such, those who have the mind of Christ, from the perspective of knowledge gained through spiritual experience, have access to the insights of reason in relation to the transcendent. They can bear constant witness, from their own lives, to the inestimable gift received through Eucharistic communion with the Person of Christ the Saviour, the Head of the mystical Body. It is precisely for this reason that Orthodox witnesses, from this perspective, do not merely invoke Christianity—or, more precisely, Orthodoxy—as a formality, but cultivate a spiritual experience that is inseparable from the incarnate Son of God. They bear witness to the Lord of glory, from whom their wisdom and understanding come, confessing Him as ‘the Way, the Truth and the Life’4. As the ‘Light of the world’5, the Wisdom of God and the Power of the Father are the first and last purpose of humankind, made in His image, and of the Universe, both created to share in the life and eternal love of the Most Holy Trinity. In this case, we can firmly assert that a world without ‘the mind of Christ’ is a secularised form of dehumanised thinking, adapted to the Gnostic spirit that pervades the contemporary world. Such a life strays from its vocation as a witness, being unable to free the world from its totalising claim and from Gnostic-style passions, such as the belief that it can encompass the truth of the world exclusively at the level of the mind. From this perspective, having the mind of Christ the Saviour requires recognising the value of faith, living out the revealed truth, and bearing witness to Christ the Saviour as the Truth, the Life and the Light of the world. This helps people, who need to become members of the Lord’s mystical Body, to transcend the limitations imposed by certain autonomous and self-sufficient conceptions of life that overestimate their own strengths and passions, in understanding and living out the realities of the Gospel and of the spiritual life. In this sense, whoever has the mind of Christ no longer regards the world as the ultimate truth, but rather the incarnate Son of God, the Creator of the world and of humankind. Our Saviour has delivered us from the bondage of death and the darkness of hell, raising us up into the Kingdom of light and eternal glory. Only those to whom the Spirit has given this ‘mind’ know the Lord of glory as the Light for the revelation of the Gentiles and the glory of the faithful people. They know the Lord of life as the Truth, the Person from Whom and to Whom all things are directed. Truly, whoever possesses such a mind knows all things, as Saint John the Evangelist says6 Of course, those who regard the world as the ultimate truth are living in utter falsehood, taking the darkness of a godless culture for light. However, for those who have the mind of Christ, it is absolutely essential to develop a knowledge and understanding of the mysteries of the faith with the help of Christ the Saviour and to cultivate this continually within the Church, so as to enhance the experience of grace for all. There are many who expect those called to speak of God to offer ‘words of great power’ for the discovery of truth and divine beauty. Young people in schools and university graduates, researchers in various fields, and people from all walks of life are drawn to the Word of Life to understand the mysteries of eternal life. We all need the grace of the Spirit and ‘the eyes of a dove’ to share in ‘the mind of Christ’. Only this gives us an understanding of the heavenly mysteries, life and light, both here and in eternal life. Thus, the mystical Body of the Lord is truly the sole centre of grace where we may cultivate a consciousness that is both dialogical and confessional in the Holy Spirit, through the Son made man towards the Father 7.

This form of knowledge transcends artificial polarities or oppositions in the relationship between reason and faith, between the scientific and the spiritual, between the physical and the metaphysical, between the immanent and the transcendent.

The mystical Body of the Lord is truly the sole centre of grace where we may cultivate a consciousness that is both dialogical and confessional in the Holy Spirit, through the incarnate Son towards the Father.

Consequently, in our desire to renew our mission today, the episcopate must bear in mind the need to draw near to the world ‘after the model of our Saviour Jesus Christ’. In this regard, we must emphasise the essential means required by the Lord in order to integrate ourselves into what He commanded His Apostles, and through them, His Church. In this regard, today’s Orthodox missionary differs from any other missionary of another religion or mission in the world. This calling focuses first and foremost on the spiritual state of the shepherd of souls and the teacher of religion, who must conform to the Saviour’s commandments. Clearly, the one best qualified to advise us on how we ought to work in the field of the Church is Saint Paul the Apostle, the Lord’s greatest missionary of all times and in all places. Blessed Paul reminds the Corinthians in his first epistle that they must acquire ‘the mind of Christ’8). How we are to acquire this mind and how we are to make it effective within the pastoral mission today is the key to success. Saint Justin Popovich, in his studies, elaborates on and highlights the Christological and ecclesial-ascetic principles in the mission of the Orthodox Church, and sets out the virtues and ascetic endeavours that the Christian missionary must acquire. What he says are not merely biblical and sapiential examples or arguments, but practical and spiritual ascetic and gnoseological details 9. These teachings are recommended by the patristic and ascetic-philocalic tradition itself through two great ascetics: Saint Macarius the Egyptian and Saint Isaac the Syrian 10. These Holy Fathers place at the forefront of their teachings sincerity towards the Gospel message and personal care for oneself. In this context, the Orthodox missionary must position himself in opposition to humanist philosophy (rationalism, criticism, idealism) and to modern humanist culture. By exploring Christian teaching both exegetically and spiritually, the bishop, the priest and the teacher of religion will be able to enter into the vast realm of the Fathers’ authentic thought. Here, with the help of grace—acquired through a direct relationship with God via prayer and the Liturgy—they will come to know the depth of an explicit system of values set before their eyes by our Saviour Jesus Christ Himself. These values are embodied in God the Man and are found in what the Apostle calls ‘the mind of Christ’. In this analysis, which is fundamental to mission and to its realisation through an authentically Orthodox way of life, we shall understand the necessity of ‘the mind of Christ’ for today’s world, which is in great need of us. The mission of the human mind has a clear purpose: to enable man to fulfil his external mission with divine efficacy, so that he may truly become an apostle of Christ the Saviour. Saint Macarius the Great, speaking of the role of the mind in the work of human salvation, said: ‘Through deification, the mind attains knowledge of its own being (hypostasis).’ It finds its eternal, sinless origin in the Mind of the God-Man. It comes to the unshakeable conviction that its mission from all eternity is to be the throne of the Triune Godhead and to have the Godhead as the ruler of all its works. This is, so to speak, the passive aspect of his mission, whilst the active aspect consists in his ascent to the heights of Divinity beyond space and in reigning from this throne. ‘The mind is the throne of Divinity; Divinity is the throne of the mind’11; herein lies the eternal meaning, the eternal value of the mind. The Lord Christ came to dethrone Satan from the throne of the mind, to make the mind ‘His throne’, and to enthrone Himself upon it. The most striking historical example of this are the Apostles. The Lord sent the Holy Spirit upon them, and He took His seat ‘upon the thrones of their minds’12 From the excerpts taken from the work of Saint Macarius, we deduce that our sending and mission into the world are realised by having Christ the Saviour as the Mind who reigns upon the throne of our mind, for, otherwise, the one who is sent has neither the Message nor the dignity or authority necessary for the mission 13. Thus, the human mind represents an extension, on the human plane, of the divine Mind or Minds of the Most Holy Trinity. Consequently, the Holy Spirit is the Trinitarian Person who brings about the mediation or sharing of the divine Mind with the human mind. He reveals the Son through the enlightenment or anointing of the faithful, teaching them what they must say before people and how they must work for their salvation. In this case, the mission is effective not only as an outward witness, but first and foremost as an inward one, being an emanation of the soul that loves God and neighbour. This is justified by the very ontological structure of the human being, fashioned after the model of the Church, within which the light of our Lord Jesus Christ shines. Thus, there is a connection between the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the human body of Christ the Saviour—understood as a temple—and us humans in the new body of reborn humanity 14. Consequently, the missionary’s acquisition of ‘the mind of Christ’—and that of the mission in general—is equivalent to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the missionary’s soul. This work of grace imparts divine efficacy to the proclamation of the Gospel, converting, remoulding and uniting people and nations into a new body and composition which only God, through His Pentecostal gift, can bring about.

To have the mind of Christ the Saviour is to live an angelic life in communion with God and His saints

Saint Luke the Evangelist, in presenting the salvific events connected with the birth, life, crucifixion, resurrection and ascension of the Saviour, and the descent of the Holy Spirit, places these accounts within the liturgical and social life of the Church as the fruits of the Holy Spirit’s grace. Through the descent of the Holy Spirit, the disciples and those who have received the mystery of faith now become a ‘community’ in which material goods are shared in common, a brotherhood of reconciliation and harmony 15. The first ecclesiological nucleus persisted ‘in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and in prayers, and was held in high esteem by all the people’16). Within this community there were no social barriers or economic imbalances; resources were redistributed so that everyone received according to their needs. Unity and communion amongst Christians were evident in all aspects of life: spiritual, liturgical, social, economic, etc. Naturally, this description by Saint Luke corresponds to the ‘salvation’ of the world through the sacrifice and resurrection of the Saviour Jesus Christ, as depicted by Saint Luke in the Gospel 17. Thus, the mystical Body of the Lord is raised to the height of angelic life, ‘all suddenly becoming angels’, as Saint John Chrysostom says. Like the angels, the early Christians shared their possessions and devoted themselves entirely to prayer and obedience. They recognised that spiritual things are held in common and that no one has more than another, being all together as one. Of course, it was not in terms of physical location that they were together and shared everything in common, but in the angelic way of life they led.”18 The early Christians thus led an angelic life, forming a community of the new Israel, committed to the path leading to the Kingdom of Heaven. Saint Luke specifies that this angelic form of organisation was practised by people whilst still on earth. The Evangelist is familiar with these traditions and wishes to record them as part of the authentic life of the early Church. In this way, the Holy Evangelist shows himself to be familiar with Jewish tradition and engages deeply with it. This characteristic of the Church is evident even in the author’s interest in angels and their way of life, in the sense of what the Saviour said in the Lord’s Prayer: ‘on earth as it is in heaven’. Saint Luke uses this focus on angels and their way of life to show that the only authentic and preferable way of life for Christians is that of the angels. Although this is a specifically Jewish subject, Saint Luke does not consider it to be a problem for the Hellenistic context. The evangelist’s intention was to ascribe angelic characteristics to the early Christian community as being the only ones specific to the new life. Thus, the joy and perfect communion between angels and God, and between people, angels and God, is the most precious ideal which the Church must strive to attain. Christ the Saviour presented this ideal many times in His parables 19. In these words of the Lord we see how the shepherd’s joy at the lost sheep and the woman’s joy at the lost coin reflect the joy of the angels in Heaven. These references to heavenly life are unique to Saint Luke, who clearly highlights the act of salvation in a new light and its effects. In these parables, in the Gospel of Saint Luke, we encounter, alongside the joy of friends and neighbours, the joy of the angels, who are not far from people and are by no means indifferent to them. Given that the shepherd is the Saviour Jesus Christ Himself, it goes without saying that the entire angelic and human community stands alongside the Lord of glory. Thus, the friends and neighbours are angels, and the shepherd is Christ our Lord. The presence of the angels clearly explains their connection with us, who are slightly lesser than they are, and God’s love for mankind, which has caused us to dwell together with them in the new life, as the Lord says: ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, from now on you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man’20 It is clear that the action in the heavenly realm is identical to that in the earthly realm, with the incarnate Son of God at its centre. The very expression ‘the angels of God’ shows us that where the Creator of heaven and earth is, there they are with Him. Their presence in the lives of believers shows us that it is not merely the angels who are with us and rejoice in our repentance, nor is it merely that God rejoices in this; but He Himself rejoices before them at our return to the communion of love with the Most Holy Trinity. In the mystical Body of the Lord, therefore, God’s joy at our return to the Father’s love is such that the angels stand before Him like neighbours invited to a feast on earth, bearing witness to and sharing in this joy. In this context, the shepherd seeking his lost sheep and the woman seeking her lost drachma are an image of the Saviour Jesus Christ, Who seeks out sinners. Through this action, the Lord gives the parable and His own mission a typically eschatological interpretation, which unites earthly life with heavenly life into a single entity: the Kingdom of Heaven. In this way, we see that the Lord’s joy for humanity conceals the joy of the Father in Heaven, for the work of the Father is present in the work of the Son and the Holy Spirit. It is precisely for this reason that the Church is called the house of the heavenly Father, and dwelling in it ‘seems to us like dwelling in heaven’. In the same vein, we understand the parable of the lost drachma, which foreshadows sinners who repent through the preaching of those who have received ‘the mind of Christ’ through baptism. Saint Luke, by introducing the angels into the life of the Lord’s mystical Body, suggests that the Saviour’s communion with His members—expressed above all in the Holy Eucharist—actualises the communion between God, humankind and the angels. Through this parable, the Saviour shows us the connection between the two worlds which, in a specifically eschatological manner, He presupposes. These correspondences illustrate a highly significant aspect: the Lord establishes His Church on earth, in which both the heavenly and the earthly worlds live and are reflected. In the mystical Body of the Lord, the faithful, together with the saints and the angels, lead a holy life, committed to an inner transformation to bring about an angelic humanity. Thus, from the Annunciation and the Nativity of the Lord onwards, we are presented with the marvellous deeds of the Lord which restore the union between Heaven and earth, severed by the sin of our forefathers. Clearly, the Lord Christ has brought about this union within His Church, through the forgiveness of sins and the sharing in His grace via the Holy Mysteries, helping those who have received the mind of Christ to become deified and to attain the heights of angelic service and life. This shows us that believers in the Church are already living out the mystery of the Kingdom of Heaven, hoping to be like the angels in heaven even in this life. For the early Church, the passage from spiritual death to life is accomplished through Baptism, when the new member of the mystical Body receives both the luminous garment of grace and the mind of Christ. In the clothing of the neophyte, the Fathers saw an eschatological garment of grace, signifying the garment that Adam had worn in Paradise before the Fall. In Paradise, Adam possessed a robe glorified by light, which was then passed down through the line of God’s chosen ones, Enoch and Elijah, to be ultimately worn by the high priest. This refers to the luminous garment of the Spirit and the renewal of the mind, which symbolise the transcendence of carnal life. The rebirth of the new-born from water and the Spirit is seen as a transition from the realm of death, through a new creation and resurrection, to an angelic life. In this way, man returns like the prodigal son to Paradise and is clothed in the garment of his original, that is, Edenic, state, to which man belonged before the Fall and into which he re-enters through Baptism. After this incorporation into the mystical Body of the Lord, and after being adopted by the Father, he may partake of the heavenly banquet where he is perfectly united with Christ the Saviour. Consequently, for Saint Luke, people’s entry into the community of the Lord Christ is a spiritual resurrection and a shift in mindset from earthly to heavenly things, a concrete metanoia. The members of the Church now take part in the angelic Liturgy and are deemed worthy to attain, even now, the bliss of eschatological salvation as children of God and heirs to eternal life 21. Thus, the Saviour bestows upon those clothed in the grace of the Resurrection His own robe and His own mind, so that they may become like the angels of the discerning mind. Such is the state and way of life of those who have been raised to life and clothed in God through their entry into the ecclesial community which the Saviour founded in His Body.

The evangelist’s intention was to ascribe angelic traits to the early Christian community as the only ones specific to the new life. Thus, the joy and perfect communion between angels and God, and between people, angels and God, is the most precious ideal which the Church must strive to attain.

In the mystical Body of the Lord, the faithful, together with the saints and the angels, lead a holy life committed to inner transformation, in order to bring about angelic humanity. …the faithful in the Church already experience the mystery of the Kingdom of Heaven, hoping to be like the angels in heaven even in this life.

A relevant example of living within the mystical Body of the Lord and of communion with the Most Holy Trinity is Saint Stephen the First Martyr, who attained the countenance of an angel. Whilst he stood before the Sanhedrin and the false witnesses spoke against him, ‘fixing their eyes on him, all who sat in the Sanhedrin saw his face as the face of an angel’22). This is the clearest statement in the New Testament regarding the angelic appearance and the spiritual dimension of the one who received the mind of Christ the Saviour for the proclamation of the Gospel truth, both in word and deed. Saint Stephen the Archdeacon receives from God the angelic form characteristic of the age to come. Because the martyr already belongs to the other world, he already bears the features of the heavenly realm. Yet, at the same time, he preaches the Gospel like no other, with great wisdom and courage—gifts which only the Holy Spirit bestows upon those who have the mind of the Lord Christ. In this capacity, the Holy Archdeacon already stands on the threshold of eternity, but also of the ecclesial dimension of the Church, which is both here and there. This state shows us that Saint Stephen lives his spiritual life prior to his martyrdom as a real life intended to be wholly consecrated to God and his fellow human beings, that is, a life filled with the Holy Spirit 23. Clearly, Saint Luke the Evangelist, through Saint Stephen, ascribes an angelic character to the whole Church, where believers are called to share in divine reason and saving grace. Thus, the descent of the Holy Spirit—which is Luke’s antitype of the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai—enlightens the minds of the faithful and creates a community whose life resembles that of the angels, who are understanding minds. Through St Luke’s vision of salvation within the Church, we realise that the episcopal mission must be carried out in the light of faith and the working of the grace of the mind of Christ in the world in which we live. The newly baptised person is, of course, ontologically restored to the Edenic state, in which man possessed within himself the uncorrupted image of God and the mind of God, a fact symbolised by the prodigal son being clothed in ‘his first robe’24 From this perspective, the Church is a community comprising both humans and angels, in which the angelic Liturgy is actualised and in which humans become ‘like the angels’ through the spiritual life 25. Saint Stephen is a mind of Christ the Saviour and an example of an angel in the flesh who acquires this character through the event of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit descended upon the heads of the Holy Apostles in the form of tongues of fire 26. Thus, the life of the Church is theandric and flows through the Sacraments into her body from her life-giving and deifying Head, the Son of God, One of the Trinity. The bishops, called to be thoughtful minds for the mission of the Church, enter the Church as the supreme leaders of their Churches to baptise and guide the people of God along the path of true wisdom towards the Kingdom of Heaven. They teach people to receive the mystery of salvation and to become wise, so that they may not be deceived by the philosophy of this age. Thus, the correct teaching of the faith is acquired through the experience of the Holy Spirit in the Church.

The mind of Christ the Saviour is attained within the mystical Body of the Lord through grace, faith and good works

The gift of the Holy Spirit is received through participation in God as light. This participation is dynamic and aims to attain the ‘active’ vision of God, as Saint Gregory Palamas demonstrates in his presentation of the energetic-participatory structure of the illuminating experience. We thus partake of the Body and Blood of Christ the Saviour, Who shines and radiates upon every human being who comes into the world, from within and without. The light of the glory of the heavenly Father sees itself; it is self-seeing (αὐτοπτικὸν) and is projected onto the face of the believer, just as it was revealed on the face of Moses. This shows that it is the seeing light of the Most Holy Trinity, which imprints itself as the seeing Subject upon the seeing subject of the believer, making His vision their own, as Saint Basil tells us. Saint Gregory Palamas argues that this vision is proper neither to the senses nor to the intellect, but rather transcends both, being at once known and unknown. Consequently, the divine light is a reality of mystical experience, of living in Christ the Saviour and of acquiring His mind. It is the visible manifestation of the divine nature, both in the Lord’s human nature and in every believer who is incorporated into His Mystical Body. This mystical experience proves that the light which the apostles saw on Mount Tabor is, by its very nature, proper to God 27; it is eternal and infinite, existing outside of time and space 28. This factual and non-symbolic character of phenomena such as the light on Mount Tabor 29 does not appear as a mere external phenomenon, but as an ‘enhypostatic symbol’ (enhypostaton symbolon) 30.

Thus, central to attaining the mind of Christ is the vision of God, which is revealed and takes shape in this formless light. This experience centres on the Incarnation, the Cross and the Resurrection 31. Saint Gregory Palamas identified three fundamental themes of Eastern Christian spirituality: theology as apophatism, revelation as light, and salvation as deification 32. The whole person, body and soul, beholds God in His glory through the infusion of uncreated divine energy. This vision is proper neither to the senses nor to the intellect, but rather transcends both and places the one who is granted this vision of the mysterious realities in a situation of standing face to face with God in the light. In this way, deification appears as a ‘common metaphor for baptismal adoption through grace or for the perfection of life at the Resurrection’33). As a personal experience, it can be attained in this life through the grace of the Holy Spirit within the mystical body of the Lord and through a programme of contemplative prayer. It is precisely for this reason that Saint Gregory Palamas insists that the ascetic can attain deification through faith and good works, thereby participating in the divine energies 34. Thus, the human being can be transformed by God in terms of a real experience—that of a light which is at once perceptible and entirely spiritual. This leads to the postulation of a distinction within God between the inparticipable and transcendent aspect – the divine essence – and that aspect in which the human being can participate – the divine energies. In this way, deification is a gift of the Spirit 35, who, though unparticipable in essence, is referred to in His deifying energy as ‘deification’, ‘thearchie’ and ‘theosis’. The one deified by grace becomes wholly one with God 36, or rather ‘partakers of the divine nature’37). Of course, participation in God is not something that man possesses from the outset, as a constitutive aspect of his being, but is a gift bestowed upon those who live in communion with the Holy Spirit, and is, moreover, the purpose of human life. God’s uncreated energy is thus imparted inseparably to the ascetic (merizome ameristos). It follows from this that deification reflects a mystical realism based on participation in God as light, which begins here and continues in its fullness in the life to come 38.

God is therefore light 39; in Him there is no darkness, as Saint John the Evangelist says: ‘And this is the message we have heard from Him and proclaim to you: that God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all’40. He is the light of the world, as our Saviour Christ declares: ‘I am the Light of the world; whoever follows Me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life’5, and He sends His disciples out to preach so that they too may be light: ‘You are the light of the world; a city set on a hill cannot be hidden’41 All these actions of the Saviour highlight the fact that the theme of divine light has been of particular importance from the very beginning: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are the triune light, from which the whole of creation receives light 42. Saint Symeon the New Theologian states that, without God’s grace, the intellect cannot be enlightened during prayer, nor can it speak to others about light 43. The light which the saints see is not a manifestation of the intellect’s original radiance, but a divine, grace-filled light 44. Thus, in moments of pure prayer, the intellect sees itself, and it sees itself because it has become luminous; but this light which enables it to see itself, to see its ‘state’, is none other than the divine light, God Himself, for, as Evagrius says, echoing John’s formula: ‘God is light in His essence’45 It is not God Himself, in His essence, whom he sees, but, like the elders of Israel, ‘the place of God’; in other words, the intellect sees itself clothed in divine light 46. This vision pertains to what Evagrius calls ‘primary natural contemplation’, which has as its object the intelligible created natures, that is, the intellects, whilst the other form of contemplation, ‘secondary natural contemplation’, has as its object the visible and material natures; which is why it is accessible to the intellect whilst still united with the body. But, to the extent that it apprehends the divine light, it already participates in the knowledge of God 47.

Saint Maximus the Confessor also describes the state of the intellect during mystical illumination, regarding this transfiguration as ‘united’ (egkratheis) with the light of the Holy Spirit. Thus, ‘when the mind is set ablaze with love for God, it no longer perceives either itself or anything else. For, being illuminated by the boundless divine light, it ceases to perceive all that God has made, just as the physical eye no longer perceives the stars when the sun rises’48”. In the manner of Saint Maximus, Saint Gregory Palamas, speaking of the necessity of light and of the ‘immediate’ vision of God, reveals the energetic-participatory structure of the illuminating experience. According to the Holy Hierarch, ‘without the coming of divine grace, there could be no mind or intellect capable of perceiving a divine sensation and coming to be truly itself in the act, just as the eye cannot do this without perceived light. For as regards eternal things—that is, those of a divine nature—He Himself is light and nothing else; … And just as, when active, the eye itself becomes light…, so too is he who has partaken of the divine activity/energy and has been changed/transformed by the divine change/transformation [theian alloiosin] himself like light, unites with the light and, together with the light, consciously beholds those things which, without this most great and ineffable grace, remain hidden from all…’49 Of course, the vision of the uncreated divine light is not a symbol of divine glory, nor an impersonal phenomenon, but the immediate presence of God in the Trinity, in His work 50. Although it is not perceptible to the senses, the light radiates outwards from the soul, upon the face and body of the one who possesses it within 51. There is, however, a distinction between the radiance of the light upon the faces of those who see it in their spirit and the light itself as seen by them 52. The reflection of divine light is therefore perceptible in a different way from the light itself, in that divine light is uncreated, yet it is visible to the physical eyes, thanks to the working of the Holy Spirit in those who are part of the mystical Body of the Lord 53.

Naturally, light is uncreated and is not subject to sensory or intellectual experience, nor does it travel through or become visible by means of the air. Saint Dionysius the Areopagite maintains that in the age to come ‘we shall be enlightened by the visible theophany of Christ the Saviour, just as the Lord’s disciples were at the Transfiguration’54. Therefore, one cannot speak of the glory of the Transfiguration travelling from the body of the Lord Christ through the air and entering the minds of the apostles via the senses. The Saviour’s body illuminates the apostles from within, as Saint Gregory Palamas says 55. Thus, ‘what was seen was either light, or was in another light. But everything there was simple. Therefore, all those things were light. Yet, since he saw them only after he had transcended himself and entered into darkness, he saw neither through his senses nor with his mind. Thus, that light is self-seeing and, in the same sense of transcendence, remained hidden from those who had not become sightless. For how could one see, in any way, through the workings of the mind, that which is seen and understood by the mind itself”56 It follows from this account that, on Mount Tabor, the body of Christ the Saviour—the source of glory by virtue of the Incarnation—illuminates the apostles from without, whilst now that same body illuminates Christians from within. Consequently, the light itself beholds itself, being self--seeing, which shows us that it is the seeing light of the person of Christ the Saviour, who imprints Himself as a seeing Subject upon the seeing subject of the believer, making His own vision 57 their own. Furthermore, the uncreated nature of the light highlights the fact that it shone not only from the body of the Lord Christ, but also flashed forth from the cloud and was by no means visible through the air 58. In this instance, the cloud that had descended upon the apostles was a source of a similar glory 59. Therefore, the light which the Holy Apostles saw on Mount Tabor is, by its very nature, proper to God 60. It is eternal, infinite, existing outside of time and space. This light is present in the Old Testament theophanies as the glory of God 61, and at the moment of the Incarnation of the Son of God, it is concentrated in Him, God and man, in whom dwells bodily the fullness of the Godhead, as Saint Paul the Apostle says 62. This gentle light is seen by all the saints who have attained the mind of Christ the Saviour and partake of the gift of the Holy Spirit. These beholder of God are moved by the Spirit to speak to others of God’s ineffable love and of the incomparable sweetness of the Kingdom of Heaven. Their mission is to enable those in the Body of the Lord to taste and see that the Lord is good. If anyone refuses to see this light here on earth, they will see it in the unquenchable fire and in the utter darkness of eternal life. The uncreated glory of the Most Holy Trinity is Heaven for those who have been healed of selfish love. They have exchanged earthly passions for the unwaning light, which they have transformed into selfless love. As for those who do not receive those sent by the Saviour, they end up in hell, the place where nothing can be seen, or the place of blindness. The Church’s missionaries do not send anyone to Heaven or Hell, but prepare those who believe to see God in His glory, where we shall all see God face to face. God loves the sinner just as He loves His saints. He desires the healing of all, but not everyone accepts it. This means that the forgiveness of sins is not sufficient to see the Saviour Christ in glory.

The uncreated glory of the Most Holy Trinity is Heaven for those who have been healed of self-centred love. They have exchanged their earthly passions for the unwaning light, which they have transformed into selfless love.

The light of the Holy Spirit illuminates the minds of those who have been deemed worthy to have ‘the mind of Christ’

The light of Tabor symbolises and is the divine nature, helping the believer to attain the knowledge of God. It introduces and assists in the spiritual experience, uniting the ascetic with the mystical Body of the Lord and integrating him into the new spiritual life. Thus, in the Church’s new mission, the hierarch, the priest, the monk or the simple believer must have a personal mystical experience of their encounter with the Saviour Jesus Christ, the One who called them to serve his flock 63. The role of religious experience is considerable, for if we do not taste the Saviour’s love, we will not tell others how good the Lord is. Human philosophy is neither sufficient nor capable of giving us this strength and this zeal to sacrifice ourselves for our brothers and sisters. Saint Gregory Palamas insists that it is not enough to be content with a theoretical knowledge of God (γνῶσις), but one must necessarily attain union with God (ένωσις) 64. Clearly, this union must reach and transcend all ‘psychological aspirations external to the grace of the Incarnation’65 This experience transcends the means of expression, reaching the very essence of love which one wishes to experience and share with one’s fellow believers. Precisely in order to distinguish between these elements, Saint Gregory Palamas identified three fundamental themes of Eastern Christian spirituality that characterise the mind of the beholder of God: theology as apophatism, revelation as light, and salvation as deification (32). It is true that man cannot attain direct knowledge of God’s being, the reason being that God’s nature is beyond all existence and beyond the knowledge that derives from existence. Thus, because of God’s transcendence, our relationship with Him is defined as silence; yet the Good and Loving One does not reject theological experience, but calls all His sons and daughters to know Him through grace. Naturally, apophatism is more than mere negation; it transcends even negation itself, for God is not only ‘unknowable’ but also ‘beyond knowledge’ (ὑπεράγνωστος). In this way, ‘he who has the mind of the Lord Christ’ attains the mystery of contemplating the unapproachable light, which is nothing other than apophatic theology. The aim of this work is the vision of God in light and ineffable love. Thus, the grace of union with God, to which the contemplation and vision of the Lord leads, overwhelms the believer with a reality for which the apophatic vocabulary is inadequate (66). Saint Gregory Palamas, having experienced this mystery first-hand, ‘sought to rescue divine transcendence and its corollary, apophatic theology, from the Neoplatonic context in which they had often been confined, and to ground it, instead, in the Christian doctrine of revelation’67. In this case, the light which the disciples saw at the Transfiguration belongs to the divine nature; it is uncreated and is a revelation of ‘what we once were and shall be’, when He will deify us. As such, “corresponding to the emphasis placed on mysticism, on vision as both the instrument and the goal of faith, the centrality of ‘light’ in that account serves as a vehicle for the exploration of the paths of divine revelation”68. Only those who do not yet possess immediate vision—whether of the Transfiguration or of the age to come—require symbols that serve as signposts to this reality 69. Through this, the two degrees of knowledge have been defined: the immediate knowledge of the glory of God and the mediated knowledge expressed in the Bible through symbols 70. Those who preach only a ‘contemplation (θεωρίαν) through negation and, beyond that, do not admit any work or vision (όρασιν)’ and, in this way, by rejecting the apophatic doctrine of light as superior to negative theology, are in fact also contesting rational knowledge 71. Consequently, divine light, as a spiritual reality, is therefore also formless. It is experienced in the love of the Holy Trinity and is not perceived as a form 72. Through this clarification, St Gregory builds a bridge between the vision or experience of God and rational negative theology, Christianising the latter—that is, helping it to know God not as an impersonal ineffable being, but as a personal ineffable being 73. From this perspective, knowledge means participation, vision, contemplation, ‘transposition’ (μετάσχεση) of the sensible and the intelligible, respectively 74. Saint Dionysius, in his works, emphasised that in the age to come, humankind will no longer need symbols, for union with God or the vision of God’s glory will be immediate and similar to that experienced by the angels. In this case, the Taboric light is the intelligible manifestation of divine glory, being, like the other divine energies, distinct from the essence of God 75. The fact that Saint Gregory Palamas demonstrates that the light which appeared on Mount Tabor to the chosen ones among the disciples is neither sensible, nor intelligible in the strict sense, demonstrates that it is of great importance to show that Christ the Saviour is truly united with His saints, communicating His ‘mind’ to them through grace. Even if the light of Tabor also had a symbolic character, this does not mean that it did not actually exist and that it is eternal, springing from the very being of God. A symbol can function simultaneously on several levels, which shows that the light of Tabor was not merely an external phenomenon, but an enhypostatic symbol (enhypostaton symbolon). This means that the light was real, even though it did not possess an independent or hypostatic existence of its own. If it had possessed an existence of its own, it would have been added to Christ the Saviour as a third nature alongside the other two, the human and the divine 76. Thus, enypostatic reality occupies an intermediate position between the self-subsistent and the accidental, which makes the Taboric light both a symbol and divinity. Being accessible to experience, yet transcending it, the light is enypostatic, enabling the beholder to participate in divinity 77. Thus, the Lord’s body illuminates the Holy Apostles from within and also radiates outwards, so that their bodies are filled with light and the objects they use are healing. Moreover, the light itself is self-visible, it is self--seeing / αὐτοπτικὸν; it is the seeing light of the Person of Christ the Saviour, Who imprints Himself as the seeing Subject upon the seeing subject of the believer, making His own vision and mind their own78 Evidently, this vision is not proper to either the senses or the intellect, but rather transcends both, being at once known and unknown. Divine light is a given of mystical experience; it is the visible character of divinity and not a self-contemplation of the rational human intellect. Saint Gregory Palamas emphasises that the light which the Holy Apostles beheld on Mount Tabor is, by its very nature, proper to God: eternal, infinite, existing outside of time and space. Thus, the light of Tabor is the intelligible manifestation of divine glory; this light, like the other divine energies, is distinct from the being of God.

The Mind of Christ is attained and perfected through Confession and Holy Communion

The Holy Mysteries are the means of sanctification available to man to become holy and deified, and to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. They have their origin in our Saviour Jesus Christ and the Holy Apostles. The Lord Himself commanded His disciples, saying: ‘Receive the Holy Spirit; if you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained’79, or ‘Take, eat; this is My Body, which is broken for you…’ and ‘Drink from this, all of you; this is My Blood of the New Covenant, which is poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this in remembrance of Me’80 Based on these and other passages from Holy Scripture, the Holy Mysteries reveal their divine origin and their Christological source. Thus, in addition to being the Christian’s weapons, the Sacraments are also the means through which God works for the salvation of the faithful. The bishop or priest, by celebrating the Holy Mysteries for the benefit of the faithful, is part of the salvific work of the mystical Body of the Lord, where the Holy Spirit Himself works in each individual. In addition to their important role as celebrants and teachers, the bishop and the priest embody the mind and work of Christ the Saviour, being instruments of the Holy Spirit. Through the grace of God, for example, confession becomes ‘the miraculous Well of the New Testament, ready at any moment, day and night, to receive into its waters, to wash, to cleanse, to renew and to heal spiritually all those believers who wish to be saved, who wish to be cleansed of the defilement of sins, wish to draw near, be reconciled and be united once more with Jesus Christ, our Saviour’81 The Saviour Himself calls us to repentance so that we may renew our minds and souls, and become vessels of the Holy Spirit. Like a second baptism, “confession is the sacrament of cleansing from personal sins and of restoring the spiritual bond with the Church, which has been severed or temporarily weakened by sin; here, the tears of repentance for sins committed take the place of the cleansing water of baptism’82 In such a case, repentance is nothing other than the continual remembrance of God; it is that which ‘touches the depths of one’s being and awakens goodness from there, brings to light and kindles the “wick that still flickers” within each of us, the glimmer of truth that animates every regret and every awakening’83 This act causes the human mind to be enlightened and the soul to be purified, as a living current flows into one’s inner self—a current that must constantly accompany our lives, for we are constantly in danger of falling. When the believer comes before the spiritual father, he believes and is convinced that he is speaking to God, a spiritual and soulful bond being established between them. By opening up their innermost being to God, ‘they provide the means that enables the spiritual father to penetrate the depths of the soul thirsting for light, which he fills with the joy of receiving divine grace’84 Just as a sick person goes to the doctor to receive healing, so too does the one who is called to the confessional come to receive spiritual healing. The confessor must aim to ‘restore the moral conscience to its rightful place. It is the conscience that reveals God’s will to us, being the court before which human deeds are brought to judgement’85 As we know, evil thoughts are those that dominate a person’s inner being, enslaving their mind. Because of these impure thoughts, a person loses their reason for being and becomes a slave to their passions, going so far as to deny their neighbour and God. Far from God and their neighbour, their heart is inclined towards the pursuit of pleasure, becoming the source of evil thoughts. Those called to have the mind of the Lord Christ must teach the lawless to submit to a process of preparation for confession through self-examination or a scrutiny of their conscience. Clearly, a return to God must be grounded in the faith that Christ the Saviour Himself forgives our sins and restores to us the mind, the sense and the taste for saving truth. Only when cleansed of passions and through partaking of the Holy Mysteries shall we encounter Christ the Saviour, He who healed people of various illnesses and forgave them their sins. Returning to communion with the Most Holy Trinity within the mystery of the Church entails observance of the divine commandments, the primary criterion for repentance and reconciliation with God, with oneself and with one’s neighbour. Therefore, ‘all moral guidance, all fatherly exhortations, which the one called to be the mind of Christ gives to people, are spiritual pearls that must be treasured with holiness. The most useful method is that of the mind and the heart, through which the bishop or priest can immerse himself in the reality of people’s lives, so as to understand their circumstances and their suffering. This practice must be emphasised particularly in the sacrament of Confession. Here, the one entrusted with authority from on high is called upon to grant the believer the necessary time, for ‘confession is not merely the hearing of sins, the granting of absolution and the imposition of penances; but is an extraordinary means of individual pastoral care, of dialogue, of open discussion with the penitent, of commenting on and interpreting the sins or acts confessed, of analysing the mitigating and aggravating circumstances surrounding the commission of sins, of examining the penitent’s psychological state, to assess the degree of repentance and remorse required as a condition for forgiveness, rather than a mere listing of sins”86

From this spiritual therapy through confession, the bishop or priest must move on to administering the medicine of salvation, the highest pinnacle of communion with Christ the Saviour and the attainment of a spiritual mind: communion with the Body and Blood of the Lord. The Saviour’s exhortation is clear: ‘Take, eat; this is My Body…’ and ‘Drink of this, all of you; this is My Blood, of the New Covenant…’87. Whoever does not eat the Lord’s Body and does not drink His Blood will have no life within them 88. The Divine Eucharist is the sacrament par excellence of the Church, through which the life, love and mind of the Lord Christ are communicated to us, and it is the centre of the whole of Christian life. Not only was it instituted by Christ the Saviour, but it was also commanded by the Lord, who said: ‘Do this in remembrance of Me’89. Thus, ‘whenever we eat this bread and drink this cup, we proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes’, as the Holy Apostle Paul confirms to us90 Compared with the other Holy Mysteries, the Divine Eucharist constitutes union with Christ the Saviour Himself, ‘the fountain and treasury of life and grace, the distributor of all the gifts pertaining to our life and piety’91 In this way, the Lord Christ Himself, the eternal Reason and Wisdom of the Father, through His Body and Blood filled with the Holy Spirit, gives Himself to mankind so that they too may be living and wise stewards of the divine mysteries. The Holy Eucharist, representing the food of immortality and the fountain of the mind that perceives the divine, is the centre of the entire life of the members of the Mystical Body of the Lord. Whoever receives Holy Communion becomes wise and holy, being sustained in their efforts to live a life in Christ. Of course, when speaking of Holy Communion as a source of life, holiness and wisdom, we must refer to the Divine Liturgy, which is the centre of Orthodox Christian worship. It is only through the Divine Liturgy that the gifts of bread and wine are transformed into the divine Body and Blood of the Lord, with the aim of sanctifying the faithful who, through these, gain the forgiveness of sins, an understanding of the mysteries, and the inheritance of the Kingdom of Heaven 92. Participation in the Divine Liturgy is precisely the entry into the very reason for the world’s existence and into communion with the life full of wisdom and feeling of the Holy Spirit, Who proceeds from the Father and rests in the Son. In this eloquent work, the ‘Lamb of God’ is broken and poured out for the sins of the world, sanctifying those who receive Holy Communion. As an integral part of the Divine Liturgy, Holy Communion represents the very essence of Christian life and the source of all people’s reconciliation with God. During the Divine Liturgy, the bishop or priest urges the faithful to taste and see how good the Lord is, without prescribing when they should partake from this life-giving spring. If Holy Communion is the food and drink of immortality, from which, if we eat and drink, we shall have the mind of Christ and eternal life, it goes without saying that the Holy Eucharist must be received as often as possible by those who keenly feel the spiritual hunger and thirst for the Lord’s Supper 93. It is clear that Holy Communion, being the greatest sacrament of the Church, unquestionably brings us into full union with Christ the Saviour and, for this very reason, a sense of awe and reverence is required when the bishop or priest, but also the believer, approaches it. Therefore, the reception of Holy Communion by all, clergy and laity alike, must take place after special preparation, that is, after the Canon of Holy Communion has been read, on an empty stomach, having made peace with all, for ‘Christ gives a feast to the whole choir that surrounds Him; therefore, it is only in this Sacrament that we too are flesh of His flesh and bone of His bones’94 Preparation for Holy Communion cannot be conceived without purity of mind and heart, without the striving to improve one’s spiritual life, both before and after partaking of the Body and Blood of the Lord. Those called to have the mind of Christ the Saviour must work to prepare their soul, heart and reason so that their whole being may resonate with the love of Christ the Saviour. To this end, it is necessary for all—bishops, priests, monks and laypeople alike—to participate frequently in the Divine Liturgy, to go to confession as often as possible, so as not to allow sin to subjugate the mind, and to receive Holy Communion as often as possible for the renewal of the soul and the mind in the Holy Spirit. For it is only through union with the Most Holy Trinity that we shall be able to know God and live in His love.

In this eloquent work, ‘the Lamb of God’ is broken and poured out for the sins of the world, sanctifying those who receive Holy Communion. Incorporated into the Holy Liturgy, Holy Communion represents the essence of Christian life and the source of reconciliation between all people and God.

Saint Elijah the Tishbite, the model of the Orthodox missionary, who sought and found God

The personality of Saint Elijah has profoundly shaped the thinking and piety of Orthodox Christians, as he serves as the bridge between the Old and New Testaments, between the old world and the world to come 95. The distinctive character of this great prophet is very clearly defined within the economy of salvation, through his holy life and his understanding of the heavenly mysteries. Through a clear parallel, Saint Ephrem highlights the virtues of the Holy Prophet and places him amongst those who rejected earthly things and communed with the heavenly, the great Prophet having sent his love to God even whilst he was still living on earth 96. Both Enoch and Elijah foreshadow the One who is to come, the Messiah, in accordance with the plan for the salvation of the world ordained by the Most Holy Trinity from all eternity. Each of them is the focus of an era designated by God to prepare mankind for the coming of the Son of God into the world. When the Heavenly One came, at the end of time, He raised mankind from the lower things to the marvellous. Through his life and virtues, Saint Elijah became the model of the Christian missionary, sent by God to proclaim repentance and a return to the true values of the faith. He is the one who fostered the expectation of the coming of the Son of the Most High. God arranged that, through their work, history might be directed towards the One foretold by the prophet. For this reason, Saint Elijah is the righteous man chosen by God to be preserved alive. He is the prophet endowed by the Holy Spirit to proclaim the holy and peaceful times of the Messianic age. Thus, God prepared him by raising him from the lower realms to the glorious ones, a progression which is manifested through the Holy Prophet and fulfilled in Christ the Saviour. The Holy One’s ascension into heaven constitutes a manifestation of the Christological event that is to follow; this iconographic event represents a turning point in the history of salvation through its prefigurative nature concerning the marvellous Ascension of the Lord Christ. In this way, Saint Elijah, who has the mind of God, embodies a symbolic Christological framework, being situated in the context of the coming of the Messiah. The Messiah, coming for our salvation, sealed with His blood the recklessness of our lives, so that the promise of life might be entrusted to His entire people. Through His death He has freed us from the bondage of the evil one and of death, and through His resurrection He has granted us immortal life.

Like any missionary concerned with the purpose of his mission to proclaim the word of God, Saint Elijah also appears as one who bears witness to the sinful state of humanity. The holy prophet is the faithful witness who, through his life and deeds, proclaimed the coming of the Lord, He who was incarnate of the Most Holy Mother of God, who is one of us, who was crucified for our salvation and rose from the dead on the third day, bestowing upon the world eternal life and great mercy. Thus, Christ the Saviour gives us the assurance of eternal life, freeing us from the bondage of the devil and of death, His Resurrection being the guarantee of our entry into the Kingdom of Heaven. It is within this Christological framework that both Enoch and Elijah find their place, as witnesses to the divine economy and to the life to come through the Lord of glory and in Him. God therefore took Enoch and Elijah from amongst mankind and caused them to dwell in another place, which was on earth. They dwelt on earth, continuing to exist in mortal nature. Having been taken from among mankind, Enoch and Elijah were given a place in relation to the Messiah, the One who is to come. Thus, they are situated within the economy of salvation between the old Adam and the New Adam. They were taken up to the place in Eden where Adam had once dwelt, each being the subject of an act of Christological significance. In this context, Christ the Saviour, the second Adam, is the goal and fulfilment of the oikonomic events of which they are the subjects. He fulfilled the promise given by God to the first humans of their return to the lost paradise. In this reality, Saint Elijah must be understood as a ‘typos’ of the Lord Christ and a herald of the divine economy. The ascension of Saint Elijah into heaven foreshadowed the Ascension of the Saviour Jesus Christ into heaven. In this context, Saint Elijah reveals not only the immortality of humankind in the Lord Christ, but also their ascension to the highest realms. From this perspective, the Ascension of the Lord envisages the lifting up of the whole of human nature together with Him to the Father.

Saint Elijah is one of the righteous men of the Old Testament designated as typological elements or representations of the Christological event. It would suffice merely to reflect on the resurrection of the widow’s son at Zarephath to define the Christological and missionary profile of Saint Elijah. To raise the child from the dead, the Saint stretched out his body over him with outstretched arms, foreshadowing the Saviour crucified on the cross, redeeming us from death and corruption. Clearly, had he not represented the incarnate Son of the Father, crucified on the cross, he could not have raised the dead boy to life. Thus, the perfect man, who possesses the mind of God, stretched himself out over the child and showed how his Lord would humble himself to raise Adam and all his race to life. For three days the Living One stood over the dead, until Adam, freed from darkness, emerged from the depths of hell and returned to his place in Paradise. Likewise, Saint Elijah, because he bore the sign of the Only-Begotten, stretched himself out three times over that child, to praise the Lord’s burial, so that the dead might be brought back to life 97. The symbolic message of this biblical passage is profound. The miracle performed by Saint Elijah clearly foreshadows both the One who came into the world for us humans and for our salvation, and His cross. At the same time, the Holy Prophet’s actions, both leading up to and during the performance of the miracle, reveal the kenotic reality of the incarnate Son of God. As we have seen, Saint Elijah stretched himself out three times over the dead child, foreshadowing God’s self-emptying in order to raise Adam 98, as Saint Paul the Apostle explains. The messianic dimension of the text is indicated not only by the reference to Christ the Saviour as the antitype, as the One whom Saint Elijah foreshadows through his deeds, but also by the fact that the Lord Christ Himself is the Subject, whilst Saint Elijah is the object of comparison. Christ the Saviour was in death for three days in order to restore to Adam the place he had lost, whilst Saint Elijah, as one of Adam’s descendants, bears the mark of Christ the Lord, the Only-Begotten. Therefore, Saint Elijah possessed both the mystery of the Saviour and His mind. It was solely on the basis of this mystery that he stood above death, raising the young man from the dead, whilst the Prophet’s gestures revealed the holy mind that manifested the Lord of glory. Thus, Saint Elijah, as a perfectly righteous man, is numbered amongst those who proclaim the Church’s mission in a Christological sense. He foreshadows the Saviour and our Lord through his deeds and miracles, possessing the mind of the Lord and being an evident typological reality. At the same time, Saint Elijah, together with Saint Enoch, is the one who prefigures immortality both as a witness to the divine economy and to the true life to which we are called through the sacrifice and resurrection of the Lord Christ. Owing to these themes, Saint Elijah is more than a figure in the history of the righteous; possessing a Christological dimension and standing simultaneously at the boundary between the ages of the divine economy and the end of the ages, when he will come to die a martyr’s death for this world and rise to eternal life. In this sense, Saint Elijah is the witness to the ‘glory of God’99, which the Saviour promised to those who believe in Him. In the Saviour Jesus Christ, the dominion of death has come to an end, and those healed of this affliction are transformed into children of light, possessing the mind of Christ. Whilst at the beginning man lost sight of the purpose of his existence and became entangled in earthly matters, through the Resurrection he is raised once more into communion with the Spirit and into fellowship with the heavenly minds. The Holy Prophet Elijah is the herald and witness of these moments, the man who foreshadows and lives out what he has proclaimed. Moreover, the holy prophet is the one who bears witness to the economy of salvation, who experiences the event of the Transfiguration and who will live on until the end of the ages, when he will speak once more of the incarnate Son of God, for which he will suffer a martyr’s death, after which he will be raised from the dead by the Almighty. As figures from the Old Testament, Saint Elijah and Saint Enoch live in the light of God’s glory and bear witness to this divine mystery in the world. Thus, the words of Saint Paul the Apostle, ‘we have the mind of Christ’, are both a testimony of the Church for the sake of preaching, and a mandate for those who proclaim the word of God in the world.

The symbolic message of this biblical passage is profound. The miracle performed by Saint Elijah clearly foreshadows both the One who came into the world for us humans and for our salvation, and His cross. At the same time, the actions of the Holy Prophet, both leading up to and during the performance of the miracle, reveal the kenotic reality of the incarnate Son of God.

• 1

  Hebrews 11:1.

• 2

  St Maximus the Confessor, The First Hundred Chapters on the Knowledge of God and the Economy of the Incarnation of the Son of God, Philokalia, vol. II, IBMBOR, Bucharest, 2008, pp. 158–159.

• 3

  1 Corinthians 15:26.

• 4

  John 14:6.

• 5a5b

  John 8:12.

• 6

  1 John 2:20: ‘But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things.’

• 7

  Fr. Dumitru Stăniloae, Jesus Christ – The Light of the World and the Deifier of Man, Basilica, Bucharest, 2014, pp. 78–79.

• 8

  1 Corinthians 2:16.

• 9

  “The Church’s mission is to unite all its believers organically and personally with the Person of Christ; to transform their sense of self into a sense of Christ, and their self-awareness into the awareness of Christ; their life to become life in Christ and through Christ; their soul to become a soul in Christ and through Christ, etc.” – Archimandrite Justin Popovich, Man and the God-Man, Deisis Publishers, Sibiu, 1997, pp. 74–75. “To contemplate all things in Christ and through Christ – this is the foremost commandment for every Christian, this is our categorical Christian imperative, this is our Christian epistemology. Through Christ, however, only he who has the mind of Christ can think. The Holy Apostle testifies, speaking of Christians: ‘We have the mind of Christ’ (1 Corinthians 2:16). How have we acquired it? By living within the body of the God-man, within the Church, of which He is the Head. Living within the Church, with the help of the Holy Sacraments and holy good deeds, unites our whole being with the being of the Church, unites our mind with the God-human mind of the Church, and enables us to think as Christ does and to think what is in Christ Jesus. And by thinking with the mind of Christ, with the conciliar mind of the Church, Christians can think as one, feel as one, share one love, and be of one spirit, one heart and one mind (Philippians 2:2; 3:16; 4:2; Romans 15:5; 1 Corinthians 1:10)” – Saint Justin Popovich, The Orthodox Church and Ecumenism, p. 25. “Living within the God-man body of the Church together with all the Saints, man gradually becomes deified, through the Holy Mysteries and holy good deeds, and is filled with the joy of that holy good news and the heaven-lifting commandment of Saint Basil the Great: ‘Man is a being destined to become god’. Having been created as a potential God-man, man strives, enfolded within the God-human body of the Church, to bring his mind into the likeness of God, to transform it into a God-mind (for we have the mind of Christ – 1 Corinthians 2:16); to bring his conscience into the likeness of God, to transform it into a divine conscience; to bring his will into the likeness of God, to transform it into a divine will; to bring his body into the likeness of God, to transform it into a divine body (The body is for the Lord, and the Lord for the body – 1 Corinthians 6:18). By becoming deified through the Church and within the Church, man returns to the likeness of God as it was before the Fall, brilliantly completing it with the divine beauties of the blissful likeness to Christ (Galatians 4:19, 3:27; Romans 8:28)” – Saint Justin Popovich, The Orthodox Church and Ecumenism, pp. 101–102.

• 10

  Saint Justin Popovich, The Way of Knowing God, Egumenița Publishing, 2014, pp. 219–220: ‘In the person of Christ, the God-man, God and man are inseparably united. Human understanding is not destroyed, but is renewed, purified, sanctified, deified and deepened, enabling man to know the truths of life in the light of God made man… ‘such a person has the mind of Christ’ (1 Cor. 2:16), thinking, living and feeling in Christ, and thus attaining a complete knowledge of the Truth’; “Philosophers of God are those whose inner being—that is, their whole mind, their whole soul and their whole heart—are filled with Christ…”, p. 202.

• 11

  Homily VI, 5, col. 521 B.

• 12

  Saint Justin Popovich, The Way to the Knowledge of God, pp. 183–184.

• 13

  Saint Gregory of Nazianzus, in his poem dedicated to the Father, refers to the Son as ‘mind’ or, as Saint Maximus would put it several centuries later, ‘divine Reason’. Thus, the Divine Mind, the Father, is the one who brings about the existence or birth of the divine mind of the Son, and from whom proceeds the divine mind of the Holy Spirit. On the other hand, in expressing the communion between the Father and the Son—the Word of God—through the mind-word analogy, Saint Maximus the Confessor provides us with the patristic foundation for conveying this ontological communion onto the human noetic plane: ‘Just as our word, springing from the innermost being of our being, is the cause of the hidden movements of the mind, so too the Word of God, manifesting Himself in the world…, reveals the Father who knew Him as the One who is the Word of God by nature, since He is called ‘the Angel of the Great Council’. (Rev. Dr Sterea Tache, ‘The Theology of the Logos in Saint Maximus the Confessor’, in ‘Studii Teologice’, 5–8, 1977, p. 524).

• 14

  The anointing with the Holy Spirit also signifies a sending forth to preach, as the Saviour Himself points out at the beginning of His missionary work: ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach good news’ (Luke 4:18; Isaiah 42:7), as the fulfilment of the prophesied promise. ‘Behold My Servant, whom I uphold; My Chosen One, in whom My soul delights. I will place My Spirit upon Him, and He shall proclaim My law to the nations’ (Isaiah 42:1) He is ‘the man’, the second Adam, created to be the man of the Word of God, and thereby the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. It is He whom ‘the Father has sanctified and sent into the world’ (John 10:36).

• 15

  Acts 4:32.

• 16

  Acts 2:47; 5:13.

• 17

  Luke 1:71–76.

• 18

  This idea of the similarity between the early Christians and angels appears several times in Saint John Chrysostom’s biblical commentary. (Saint John Chrysostom, in Acts of the Apostles, PG 60, 57).

• 19

  J. Jeremias, The Parables of Jesus, Anastasia, 2000, pp. 165–173; D. M. Derrett, The Parable of the Prodigal Son: Patristic Allegories and Jewish Midrashim, Studia Patristica, 10, 1970, pp. 219–224.

• 20

  John 1:51.

• 21

  Luke 15:3–10.

• 22

  Acts 6:15.

• 23

  Acts 6:3–10.

• 24

  Luke 15:22.

• 25

  Luke 15:7–10.

• 26

  Acts 7:53.

• 27

  Alexander Golitzin, Mystagogy: The Experience of God in Orthodoxy, translated by Ioan I. Ică Jr., Deisis, Sibiu, 1998, pp. 184–267, in particular pp. 232–236.

• 28

  Divine light appears in the theophanies of the Old Testament as the glory of God. Following the Incarnation of the Son of God, the divine light was concentrated in God and man, in whom dwells bodily the fullness of the Godhead, as Saint Paul the Apostle says (Colossians 2:9).

• 29

  Saint Gregory Palamas speaking of Moses undergoing the Transfiguration on Mount Sinai, in contrast to Christ the Saviour, Who brings about the Transfiguration. The Lord Himself is the source of glory (Homily 41, 34). The terms theosis (deification), henosis (union) and orasis (vision) are synonymous. For this very reason, the light of Tabor appears as the intelligible manifestation of divine glory, the light being, like the other divine energies, distinct from the essence of God.

• 30

  The light was therefore real, even though it did not have an independent or hypostatic existence of its own. If it had an existence of its own, it would have been added to Christ the Saviour as a third nature alongside the other two, the human and the divine. In this case, enypostatic reality occupies an intermediate position between the self-subsistent and the accidental. In the case of the Tabor light, it simultaneously ‘symbolises’ and ‘is’ the Godhead. As an ‘enipostatic’ symbol, it enables the beholder to share in the Godhead. For Varlaam, the symbol is something entirely distinct from the reality it represents, as a dichotomy, whilst for Gregoras, even the theophany on Mount Sinai and the Incarnation itself are merely transcendable symbols. The discussion on the status of the symbol leads Palamas to develop the distinction between the essence and the energies of God.

• 31

  We must emphasise that the Western axiom of an exclusivity of simplicity in the face of all real distinction masks the introduction into the divine mystery of a metaphysics incapable of holding both ends of the explanatory chain simultaneously. Even simplicity can become a philosophical concept through which we may claim to determine the indeterminable. In that case, whilst Palamism sacrificed divine simplicity in favour of deification, Thomism sacrificed deification in favour of simplicity.

• 32a32b

  Ibid., p. 147.

• 33

  For an examination of the patristic concept of theosis, see N. Russell, The Doctrine of Deification in the Greek Patristic Tradition (Oxford, 2004). Saint Gregory Palamas’s contemporaries corroborate Russell’s view. Theoliptus of Philadelphia, Homily 23, 11: ‘And just as Adam, having been fashioned by the hands of God from the dust of the earth, became a “living soul” through the breath of God (Genesis 2:7), so too does the mind, fashioned by the virtues through the Lord’s chosen calling, arising from a pure mind and a fervent disposition, undergo a divine transformation, being made alive and deified by the knowledge and love of God” (Theoliptus of Philadelphia, the Pious and Confessor, Spiritual Words, Hymns and Letters, Introductory Study and Translation by Ioan I. Ică Jr., Deisis, 2000, p. 306); Saint Gregory of Sinai, Chapters by Acrostic 53: “The sons of Christ’s resurrection will be, he says, minds, that is to say, like the angels, having become holy through incorruptibility and deification” (Philokalia 7, p. 101).

• 34

  For a synoptic overview of Saint Gregory Palamas’s approach to theosis, see J. Lison, ‘La divinisation selon Grégoire Palamas. Un sommet de la théologie orthodoxe’, Irénikon 67, 1994, pp. 59–70. See also G. Mantzridis, Deification of Man: St Gregory Palamas and the Orthodox Tradition, Crestwood, NY: SVS Press, 1984, pp. 147–268.

• 35

  Palamas, On Divine Energies 33–37, ed. Perrella, 1030–1034, cf. N. Russell, Theosis…, p. 70.

• 36

  The Christological term ‘homotheoi’, used by the Holy Fathers, refers to the deified body of Christ the Saviour, which Saint Gregory Palamas extends to the saints as well. Through grace, they become ‘anarchoi’ (without beginning) and ‘ateleutetoi’ (without end), not because they become what God is in His essence, but because they come to share in His attributes.

• 37

  2 Peter 1:3.

• 38

  Theosis is not merely a name for uncreated grace, a transformation wrought upon the believer through divine action, as the opponents of Saint Gregory Palamas maintained, but signifies a real participation in the life of God, making us homotheoi and god-like through grace; whilst we remain hypostatically distinct, we become one in energy; the ontological chasm is neither bridged nor removed through deification. According to the ‘formula of exchange’ characteristic of Saint Irenaeus and Saint Athanasius, theosis is nothing other than the complementary result, in more technical terms, of the deification of the human nature of Christ the Saviour through hypostatic union and the communication of attributes.

• 39

  The word ‘God’ (θεός), of Sanskrit origin, means ‘light’ or ‘day’ (the Sanskrit word is ‘deva’ – in Latin, ‘deus’). Light is the attribute that characterises most deities, or the very essence of the deity itself. See Karl Kerényi, Antike Religion, Munich 1971, pp. 207–217. On the other hand, Saint Gregory of Nyssa says: ‘The Pneumatomachi claimed that Divinity means nature. We, however, say that the Divine Nature has no name for us that signifies anything in itself… (the name) is something signified by what surrounds it… the serpent shows that the name ‘divinity’ signifies a visible work… ‘Your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be like gods’ (Genesis 3:5). (St Gregory of Nyssa, On the Divinity of the Son and the Holy Spirit, PG 46, 573D–576A). Consequently, the term ‘divinity’ denotes not the nature but the creative power, maintains St Gregory Palamas: ‘God denotes the One who works, whilst “divinity” denotes the work; but the work is not any one of the Three; rather, each of the Three works’. (The Tomos of the Council of Constantinople, May–August 1351 – the principal official text of the dogma of the uncreated energies, ‘Theological Studies’, 1, 2005, p. 76). Saint John of Damascus, of all the names given to God, singles out two: ‘He who is’ (Exodus 3:14) or ‘The Good One’ (a Dionysian expression) which ‘indicates His existence, but not what God is’ and ‘God’ (ὁ Θεός), which derives: either from θεειν, meaning to run and encircle all things, or from αἴθειν, meaning to burn, for God is a fire that consumes all wickedness (Hebrews 12:29), or from θεάσθαι, meaning ‘to see everything’, since nothing can be hidden from Him and He observes all things. The second name indicates His activity (St John of Damascus, Dogmatics, I, 9, trans. D. Fecioru, IBMBOR Ed., Bucharest, 2001, pp. 37–38).

• 40

  1 John 1:5.

• 41

  Matthew 5:14.

• 42

  Geogios Mantzaridis, The Deification of Man, St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, New York 1984, p. 96.

• 43

  H. Alfeyev considers that the vision of God as light is the essential characteristic of the mystical terminology of Saint Simeon the New Theologian. The term phos, the verb orao, as well as other terms related to the theme of the vision of God (photizo, photismos, ellampo, ellampsis, thea, theaomai, orasis, etc.) are frequently employed by Saint Simeon, being characteristic of Byzantine literature of his time. (Hilarion Alfeyev, ‘The Patristic Background of St. Symeon the New Theologian’s Doctrine of the Divine Light’, Studia Patristica, 32, 1997, p. 229).

• 44

  According to Evagrius, there is a kinship between the inherent radiance or light of the human intellect and the divine light: the intellect – nous – is created in the image of God, and its light is ‘connected to Him’. Regarding this point, Evagrius states that ‘…at the hour of prayer, the ascetic contemplates the very light of the intellect; it is this light itself that illuminates him’ (The Gnostic, 55). Elsewhere, he adds: ‘As a sign of dispassion: the mind begins to see its own light’ (Practical Treatise 64). Thus, light is one of the symbols most frequently used by Evagrius to express the intellect’s access to gnosis. (Evagrius Ponticus, Practical Treatise. The Gnostic (2nd edition), Introduction, dossier, translation and commentary by Cristian Bădiliță, Polirom Publishers, Iași, 2003, p. 159).

• 45

  Gnostic Chapters, I, 35.

• 46

  Evagrius’s theory on the contemplation of God and the illumination of the intellect is based, from a scriptural perspective, on the words of Moses in the Book of Exodus 24:10: ‘And they saw the place where the God of Israel was standing; beneath His feet was something like a sapphire, pure and clear as the open sky.’ Evagrius, of course, quotes the Septuagint version, which softens the text; the Masoretic Text reads not ‘the place of God’, but simply ‘they saw the God of Israel’. Philo of Alexandria interprets this passage allegorically, identifying ‘the place of God’ with the Logos, distinct from the Being. (De Confusione linguarum 97) The distinction that Saint Gregory Palamas would make between the uncreated energies (which can be contemplated) and the divine Essence is a reformulation of the Philoic distinction.

• 47

  Thus, the light described by Saint Symeon the New Theologian is immaterial – aylos, simple, formless, uncompounded, incorporeal. Although beyond all categories, beyond matter and form, God reveals Himself, taking form in this formless light (amorpho photi): ‘God does not show Himself in a figure or an image, but by taking shape in a light that is incomprehensible, unapproachable and formless [en amorpho photi morphoumenos]…” (Saint Symeon the New Theologian, Catecheses. Writings II, Introductory Study and Translation by Ioan I. Ică Jr., Deisis Publishers, Sibiu, 2003, p. 361).

• 48

  Saint Maximus the Confessor, Treatises on Love I, 10, Philokalia 2, trans. D. Stăniloae, Humanitas, Bucharest, 2004, p. 55. Regarding the nature of the light that shone upon the face of the Lord, Saint Maximus says that it was unapproachable – aprositon – and intelligible – noeton – a symbol of the divinity of Christ the Saviour. However overwhelming it may be, the light is merely a descent towards us of the divinity that is beyond the mind. The term ‘symbol’ – ‘the light that appeared to the senses is a symbol of the unseen mystery’ – denotes the manifestation of a hidden divine reality which, although revealed, never ceases to remain a divine mystery. That light is a symbol of an experiential understanding that transcends any conceptually defined intellectual understanding of God. Beholding this Taboric light does not mean beholding the essence of God, but rather the highest degree of God’s manifestation (St Maximus the Confessor, Ambigua, PSB 80, trans. D. Stăniloae, Ed. IBMBOR, Bucharest, 1983, pp. 125, 126, 158, 164 and 187).

• 49

  Saint Gregory Palamas, Homily 53, A Discourse on the Entry of the Most Holy Virgin into the Holy of Holies and on her God-like life there, 60, in Deacon Ioan I. Ică Jr., The Mother of God in 20th-Century Theology and in 14th-Century Hesychastic Spirituality: Gregory Palamas, Nicholas Cabasilas, Theophanes of Nicaea. Studies and Texts, Deisis Press, Sibiu, 2008, pp. 363–364.

• 50

  With regard to the nature of light, Saint Gregory Palamas teaches that it is uncreated, whilst Varlaam of Calabria argues that it is created. In his exposition, Varlaam draws on the Augustinian tradition, which asserts that the proof of light’s created nature lies in the fact that it travels to the senses via the air, and that it is only through a process of abstraction, by means of the imagination, that the intellect becomes aware of it.

• 51

  In the Old Testament, the light on Moses’ face could be seen with the naked eye by those who looked upon him.

• 52

  It should be emphasised that, regardless of whether the light was visible to the physical eyes, it cannot be seen by the natural power of the eyes, but through the Holy Spirit, who works through the minds and eyes of those who are pleasing to God.

• 53

  Nicolae Moșoiu, The Mystery of God’s Presence in Human Life: The Creative Vision of Father Professor Dumitru Stăniloae, Paralela 45, Brașov, 2000, pp. 98–100.

• 54

  From Div. Nom. I, 4; Tr. I, 3, 26.

• 55

  Saint Gregory Palamas is outraged by the idea that the uncreated light can be perceived by the senses alone, and argues that this perception is peculiar neither to the senses nor to the intellect, but rather transcends both, being at once known and unknown.

• 56

  A Word to Those Who Find Peace in Piety 56, Philokalia 7, p. 308. Indeed, the very simplicity of the divine light as it is seen shows that it is experienced in intensity, not in juxtaposed horizontality or in the changing succession of forms. It is the unitary yet complex intensity of the divine Person or Persons united in being.

• 57

  Vladimir Lossky, ‘The Theology of Light in Saint Gregory Palamas’, in In the Image and Likeness of God, trans. Anca Manolache, Humanitas, Bucharest, 2006, pp. 38–67.

• 58

  Varlaam is mistaken in his argument that this light within the body of Christ can be experienced directly through the senses alone.

• 59

  Father Meyendorff says that God is called ‘light’ not in terms of His essence, but in terms of His energy. If the energies that manifest God’s nature are called ‘light’, this is not merely by analogy with material light; rather, divine light is a fact of mystical experience. It is the visible character of the Godhead. This light (φῶς) or illumination (ἔλλαμψις) is immaterial (ἂῢλον). The Athonite Tomos therefore distinguishes between: 1) sensible light, 2) the light of the intellect, and 3) uncreated light. Sight and the intellect do not perceive one and the same light. This uncreated, eternal and deifying light is the name of grace (χάρις) (J. Meyendorff, ‘Le thème du retour en soi dans la doctrine palamite du XIVe siècle’, Revue d’histoire des religions, CXLV, 2, 1954, pp. 188–206).

• 60

  A. Golitzin, ‘The Form of God and the Vision of Glory: Reflections on the “Anthropomorphite” Controversy of 399 AD’, in Hieromonk Alexander Golitzin, Mystagogy: The Experience of God in Orthodoxy, trans. Ioan I. Ică Jr., Deisis Publishers, Sibiu, 1998, pp. 184–267, in particular pp. 232–236.

• 61

  According to Sergei Bulgakov, every theophany relates to the Incarnation of God and, by extension, to the principle of divine motherhood. Here, two aspects of the revelation of God’s glory are intertwined: through the incarnation of the Logos – the cloud as the principle of divine motherhood – and through theophany – the consuming fire, both of which are inseparable. He goes on to say that ‘the vision of God’s glory is not the vision of God’s image’; doxophany is not theophany. Of course, this distinction between doxophany and theophany also stems from the Russian author’s Sophianic errors: ‘doxophany, a manifestation of Divine Wisdom’ (Divine Sophia unites with Sophia in the creature) apud, Sergei Bulgakov, The Unconsumed Bush, trans. Boris Buzilă, Anastasia Publishers, Bucharest, 2001, pp. 188–191 and 194–195.

• 62

  Colossians 2:9.

• 63

  J. Meyendorff, Introduction…, p. 221, cf. Jaroslav Pelikan, The Christian Tradition. A History of the Development of Doctrine. II. The Spirit of Eastern Christianity (600–1700), trans. and notes by Rev. Prof. Nicolai Buga, Polirom, 2005, p. 286.

• 64

  Triade I, 3, 20, Meyendorff, p. 153. The difference was also evident in the two axioms: ‘Know thyself’ (Socrates) and ‘Take heed to thyself’ (Deut. 15:9). The first called for self-knowledge, the second for the synergy between grace and freedom.

• 65

  J. Meyendorff, Introduction…, p. 214.

• 66

  Varlaam of Calabria seeks to demonstrate that the highest form of knowledge possible to man in this life is not the supposedly supra-rational and supra-sensual vision of light, but rather the passing beyond the light and the entry into the Dionysian darkness, which is nothing other than the apophatic form of intellectual knowledge. The Calabrian went so far as to assert that the knowledge of God is a species of knowledge in general. Saint Gregory Palamas agrees with Varlaam that apophatic theology itself is rational, but goes further, demonstrating that Areopagite darkness is another name for the unapproachable light in which God dwells, and that this darkness is not apophatic theology. Thus, the vision of God is a supra-rational and supra-sensual experience, being at once both knowledge and ignorance, seeing and not seeing, and therefore not a form of knowledge in general.

• 67

  J. Pelikan, Tradition…, vol. II (600–1700), p. 290.

• 68

  J. Pelikan, Op. cit., pp. 290–291.

• 69

  Etymologically, the word ‘symbol’ derives from the Greek symbállein, which means ‘to put together’. A ‘sýmbolon’ was originally a sign of recognition, an object cut into two halves, the joining of which allowed the bearers of each part to recognise one another as brothers and to greet one another as such, even if they had never met before. Conceptually, a symbol is a connecting element, imbued with reflection and analogy. It unites contradictory elements and bridges oppositions. Nothing can be understood or communicated without its involvement: ‘Logic depends on it, since it draws on the concept of equivalence, and mathematics, too, with its numbers, expresses itself only through symbols. Life, in particular, is the most fertile source of these processes and their oldest user. It manifests them from the moment the first articulated sound was uttered by primitive man. That is why a vital and organic symbol will always express spiritual truths better than any other, as the Gospel parables demonstrate” (Luc Benoist, Signs, Symbols and Myths, Humanitas, Bucharest, 1995, pp. 5–6).

• 70

  According to Saint Gregory Palamas, who sets out the tradition of the Eastern Fathers, there are three stages in the ascent towards the knowledge of God: 1) the knowledge of the divine principles underlying all creatures, 2) the knowledge of God through the negation of these principles (theology by negation – there is only God’s place), and 3) the vision of God in the darkness beyond light (supraluminos).

• 71

  ‘And, in fact, if vision (θεωρία) through negation and divine darkness are one and the same thing, and vision actually means an absence of vision, in accordance with those who say that beyond it there is no further divine vision, then this divine darkness, too, is darkness in its own right, a darkness of absence, which drives those who dwell within it mad’ (Philokalia 7, op. cit., pp. 302–303). It is precisely for this reason that those who place theology by negation on the highest level consider that the highest knowledge is the recognition of the absence of all knowledge, the knowledge of absolute emptiness.

• 72

  We recall that Moses underwent the Transfiguration on Mount Sinai, in contrast to Christ the Saviour, who brings about the Transfiguration, being Himself the source of divine glory.

• 73

  Varlaam is an advocate of the unified knowledge of God through divine illumination, which is bestowed upon all perfect human beings, an illumination that makes them ‘God-beholders’ (theoptas). Saint Gregory, whilst rejecting Varlaam’s argument, nevertheless recognises the importance of natural theognosis. He shows that divinity lies beyond dialectic and demonstration; it is not a subject for the senses or for syllogism. Saint Gregory has no difficulty in drawing upon the tradition concerning the two paths of theognosis. The theory of a dual path of knowledge dates back to Aristotle, who reduces the four faculties of knowledge (sensation, science, intellect and opinion) to two: that of science and that of opinion. In the history of theognosis, Clement of Alexandria sets out the theory of dual knowledge: ‘Faith is a concise knowledge of what is indispensable, whilst knowledge itself is a strong and certain demonstration of what has been received through faith’ (Stromata, 7, 10). Saint Maximus the Confessor also expresses the idea of dual knowledge using various terms: relative and true knowledge, habitual and operative knowledge, reason and sensation. Thus, says the Holy Father: “The word ‘sensation’ has two meanings. In one sense, sensation is understood as an aptitude and faculty that resides within us even whilst we sleep, even if we do not perceive anything. This is of no use to us when it does not lead to an act. In the second sense, sensation is understood as an act. Through it we perceive things subject to the senses. Likewise, knowledge is of two kinds. One is of a theoretical nature, revealing the reasons behind things through mere habit. It is of no use unless it is directed towards the practice of the commandments. The other, however, is practical and active, providing us with a true understanding of things through experience of the things themselves” (Gnostic Chapters 22, Philokalia 2, op. cit., p. 133). The first forms of knowledge are intellectual and help to organise matters in this world; the others are active and scientific and ensure deification in the age to come.

• 74

  Antiquity draws a clear distinction between truth in itself (the thing) and the perception of that truth; or, to put it another way, it draws a distinction between truth and knowledge. Knowledge always entails participation in truth.

• 75

  Varlaam maintains that on Mount Tabor the disciples saw “a perceptible light, which is visible through the air, created (gegonos), and therefore capable of making an impression and immediately diminishing (apogenomenon), and which is called divinity because it symbolises divinity’ (Treatise II, 1.11). Meyendorff believes that from the perspective of the Calabrian school, which regards light as ‘imaginary’ (phantastikon) and ‘inferior to the intellect’ (heiron nouseos), the Liturgy would be nothing more than a symbol intended to access ‘immaterial archetypes’ (Treatise II, 1.9. J. Meyendorff, Introduction…, p. 260).

• 76

  For an understanding of symbolism in the works of Saint Gregory Palamas, see also H. Gunnarsson, Mystical Realism…, op. cit., pp. 235–246.

• 77

  The development of this definition dates back to Leontius of Byzantium, with Saint Gregory Palamas drawing a distinction between enypostaton (enhypostatic), autoypostaton (self-subsistent) and anhypostaton (lacking independent existence). The prefix ‘en’, in ‘enhypostatos’, is an adjective which is attached to a noun to denote possession, as opposed to the privative ‘alpha’ (from ‘a[n]hypostatos’), which denotes absence (B.E. Daley, The Christology of Leontius of Byzantium: Personalism or Dialectics, Oxford, 1983). Loofs also distinguishes between that which is enhypostatised, or assumed, and the part that assumes, the hypostasis. Thus, whilst the hypostasis signifies the individual, that which is enhypostatised signifies the essence (Loofs, Leontius von Byzanz, Leipzig, 1887). ‘Enhypostaton’, translated as ‘subsisting-in’, must be distinguished from ‘μβεβηκός’, which means ‘accident’ and for which the statement ‘has its existence in another’ is correct (H. Stickelberger, ‘Substanz und Akzidens bei Leontius von Byzanz’, in TZ, 36, 1980, p. 155) cited in Aloys Grillmeier, Christ in Christian Tradition. Volume II: From the Council of Chalcedon (451) to Gregory the Great (590–604). Part Two: The Church of Constantinople in the sixth century, London: Mowbray, 1995, pp. 194–197.

• 78

  For Varlaam, the symbol is something entirely different from the reality it represents, as a dichotomy; whilst for Gregoras, even the theophany on Mount Sinai and the Incarnation itself are merely symbols that can be transcended. However, the discussion on the status of the symbol leads Saint Gregory Palamas to develop a clear distinction between the essence and the energies of God (N. Russell, Theosis…, pp. 367–368). For an understanding of the symbol in Gregory, see D. N. Moschos, Platōnismos ē Christianismos? Oi philosophikes prohypotheseis tou Antihēsychasmou tou Nikēphorou Grēgora (1293–1361), Athens, Parousia, 1998).

• 79

  Matthew 18:18 and John 20:20–23.

• 80

  Matthew 26:26–28, Mark 14:22–24.

• 81

  Rev. Prof. Spiridon Cândea, ‘Divine Worship and Divine Pastoral Care’, in ‘BOR’, no. 11–12/1967, p. 1207.

• 82

  Rev. Prof. Dr Ene Braniște, Special Liturgy, Lumea Credinței Publishers, Bucharest, 2005, p. 310.

• 83

  Fr. Constantin Galeriu, ‘The Christian Meaning of Repentance’, in Studii Teologice, 9–10/1967, p. 675.

• 84

  Associate Professor Ilie Moldovan, ‘The Spiritual Father and the Gift of the Forgiveness of Sins’, in Ortodoxia, no. 3–4/1977, p. 580.

• 85

  Ibid., p. 581.

• 86

  Rev. Prof. Dr Nicolae D. Necula, Tradition and Renewal in Liturgical Ministry, vol. III, IBMBOR, Bucharest, 2004, p. 203.

• 87

  Matthew 26:26–28; Mark 14:22–24.

• 88

  John 6:51: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live for ever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my body.”

• 89

  Luke 22:19.

• 90

  1 Corinthians 11:26.

• 91

  Rev. Prof. Petre Vintilescu, ‘Holy Communion in Christian Spirituality: Frequent or Infrequent Communion?’, in Studii Teologice, no. 5–6/1953, p. 382.

• 92

  Nicolae Cabasilas, The Explanation of the Divine Liturgy, trans. Rev. Prof. Dr Ene Braniște, IBMBOR, 1997, p. 7.

• 93

  Without the Holy Eucharist, acts of piety remain mere formalities of superficial value, or even devoid of any value whatsoever. If the faithful were to receive Holy Communion ever more rarely, then the role of the Divine Liturgy would certainly be diminished; the call during the Divine Liturgy – ‘with fear of God, with faith and with love, draw near’ remains a call that rings out like a ‘resounding bell’ in our Christian churches (Rev. Prof. Petre Vintilescu, Holy Communion in Christian Spirituality: Frequent or Rare Communion?, p. 396).

• 94

  Genesis 2:23. Nicolae Cabasila, On Life in Christ, IBMBOR, Bucharest, 1997, p. 118.

• 95

  Michel Hayek, ‘Elijah in the Syriac Tradition’, in Elijah the Prophet, Les Études Carmélitaines, Paris: Desclée de Brouwer, 1956, pp. 159–178.

• 96

  Saint Ephrem describes Saint Elijah as unrivalled in the economy of salvation: ‘No one is like Elijah, he who was intoxicated by the love of the heavenly ones. He despised the riches of Ahab’s house and preferred poverty. He despised a bed and lay upon a rock. He despised resplendent chambers and loved dark caves. He despised fine wines and asked for a drop of water. He despised fine food and begged for a piece of bread. He sent his love to heaven, in secret, whilst he was on earth, and that is why heaven sent him, in plain sight, the chariot of fire. This carried him swiftly and transported him amongst the heavenly hosts. For his heart had soared in secret, and his body was lifted up in plain sight. Through his prayer and by his intercession, may we be deemed worthy to behold him amongst the angels!” (Edmund Beck, Des Heiligen Ephraem des Syrers Sermones, II, Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium (CSCO), 311–312, Syr. 134–135, p. 54 (Syriac), pp. 70–71 (German), vv. 653–677, cited in Cătălin Popa, A Christological Perspective on Saint Elijah. Symbolic-Dogmatic Linearity in Syriac Thought (Narsai, Cyrus of Edessa and Jacob of Sarug), 9–12, ‘MO’, 2015, pp. 213–229).

• 97

  Paulus Bedjan (ed.) Homiliae selectae Mar–Jacobi Sarugensis, Vol. III, pp. 315–316, v. 21, v. 1–9.

• 98

  Philippians 2:6–8: ‘Who, though He was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in human likeness, and being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself, becoming obedient even unto death—even death on a cross.”

• 99

  John 11:40.